Holding the baby
by princessangelwings
Summary: t/p het. season 7 AU. Paris is left to hold the baby and has to fly Voyager with his daughter on the bridge... action/drama/whump/humour/fluff my first STV so please be nice lol
1. Chapter 1

Daddy Daycare

Star Trek Voyager

Season 7 AU

T/P with child

No warnings – PG13

Summary: Tom is left holding the baby and has to fly voyager out of danger with his infant on the bridge

Genre: drama/humour/fluff

Disclaimer: shocking I own nothing… I just like to play! Lol

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My first STV fic, please be kind… I'm in new territory and am unsure of what the heck I'm doing! Hehehehe

Also, I'm not entirely sure what direction I want this to go in…as I said new to the whole thing so any feedback…advice, tips etc. would be lovely.

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A shrill cry tore him from his slumber. "Please let daddy sleep just a bit longer," he grumbled, rolling over and pulling the covers over his head. The crying continued until he could no longer ignore it. "Alright, alright! I wasn't enjoying that dream anyway! Jeez, who knew babies were such hard work?"

It was 04:23 and B'Elanna was working the night shift in engineering. Tom had finished his duty shift at 20:00 strolled back to the quarters he shares with his wife and beautiful baby daughter, to be greeted by the love of his life practically throwing the infant into his arm, peeking him on the cheek - "There's a warm bottle on the table and her teddy is on the chair. Love you, bye!" – Before running out the door. Tom was beginning to wonder if he'd ever hold his wife in his embrace again. normally, Chakotay was pretty good with the duty roster but a near miss with an alien squid creature two weeks ago meant that everyone on board was expected to do longer shifts at unsociable times; regardless of family status.

Cradling his child against his bare chest, Tom slowly paced around the room. He allowed his mind to wander as he held her tight, tiny puffs of air raising the blond hairs across his Pecs. He was so unbelievably tired, his eyes were dry and every muscle ached. He'd spend the day crawling around Jefferies tubes with Harry fixing gel packs. Fun was not the word. 'Little one' began to stir so he cooed and whispered nothings in her precious ear hoping she'd drop off and that he could get a few more hours shut-eye until his next shift.

He'd never really thought about being a father. The only example he had to learn from had been… well… lacking. B'Elanna had her 'I'm-going-to-be-a-mother-freak-out' quite early on in the pregnancy. Tom had saved his for later. In fact his 'oh-my-god' moment happened on an away mission and poor Harry was left having to fend of enemy soldiers and keep his best friend calm. Fortunately Tuvok arrived at just the right time and Tom went home and told his wife his fears. He couldn't handle the idea that he'd be like his dad. Tom keep walking as he thought, reliving the best moments with B'Elanna.

The quiet times when they snuggled and comforted each other; the rough times when they wanted to strangle every last breath out of each other and scream like tomorrow would never come. On the outside they appeared to be such as odd pair. He didn't care what people thought; in B'Elanna he had found the one person who can take him - warts and all, and not judge because she was just as messed up in the head as him. They were together; perfect. Tom was dragged from his thoughts by Neelix, "Er, Tom… not that it's not nice to see you but… shouldn't you be wearing a top?"

"Huh? What?" Tom looked around him and was shocked to find himself in the messhall with a sleeping baby drooling down his arm. "I… erm… well… I was just er… going. Yes… must be off, see you in the morning Neelix!" ignoring curious glances from fellow officers Tom Paris flew out of the room and back to his quarters.

By 07:00 Tom was showered – so was the baby – he was dressed – baby too – and ready to hand his daughter over to his exhausted wife. "Where is she, Hum? Where is that Mummy of yours?" it was getting late. If she didn't arrive soon he'd be forced to take Miral to the bridge with him and then what would the Captain say? He smiled, amused when his pictured Janeway's bewildered face.

By 07:10 Tom was starting to panic, "Paris to B'Elanna?"

"Oh Tom!" she exclaimed, "I forgot to tell you, the warpcoil manifolds are giving us some serious trouble and if I don't fix this then we'll be dead in the water! I'm so sorry!"

"Don't worry, I'll ask Harry to baby sit. Love you, Paris out."

"Yeah, no problem," Tom mumbled to his darling daughter. "Paris to Kim,"

"Kim here,"

"Harry! I need a favour, you're good with diapers aren't you?"

"Oooh no, not this time, Tom! This is my first day off in weeks and I am not spending it babysitting your daughter!"

"Your goddaughter needs you Harry!"

"No, Tom! Not this time,"

"Fine! You go, have fun. I'll just have to take your goddaughter to work with me! You'll like that won't you darling? Yes, daddy, that'll be fun watching you fly Voyager, being bored, crying my eyes out and generally irritating the Captain!"

"Tom!" Harry warned. Tom knew he was going a bit too far but damn it, what else what he supposed to do?

"You could always ask the Doc?" His friend tried to placate him.

"Nah, remember last time? The poor kid couldn't sleep for weeks! And that was just the Doc! The man's more of a hypochondriac than Neelix!" Resolved to finding another way, Tom sighed.

"True. You wanna play pool later? I've been practicing my doubling." Harry said excitedly.

"I can't. B'Elanna's got tons of work on what with the warp manifolds or something. Another time?"

"Sure, Kim out."

End part one of… not sure. Some! Lol


	2. Chapter 2

TWO

"Now, sweetie, I need you to be a good girl and sleep a lot today. Don't worry that you'll keep Mommy up all night, you need to sleep while Daddy works, okay?" Miral looked up at her father's piercing, kind blue eye, innocently. "Oh yeah, this is gonna be one hell of a shift," Tom muttered as he shifted his daughter in his arms and placed her in the baby-backpack he was planning to wear all day. They exited the turbolift and Tuvok raised his eyebrow in amusement. Or possibly annoyance, it was hard to tell. Paris waved in Tuvok's direction and walked purposefully toward his seat at the CONN. He could feel the amused eyes and smiles of the bridge crew trained on his back as well as the odd 'Awww' from the females.

"Mr Paris may I ask why you have a baby strapped to your back?" enquired Chakotay a grin playing on his features.

Tom could practically hear the Captain's head snap in his direction as he began to sit in his place, "Er, well, the thing is B'Elanna's doing a double shift in Engineering…" the Captain interrupted his excuse before he'd even got going.

"Tom, lovely though it is to see Miral, the bridge of a starship is hardly the place for a baby!" her voice was hard but was betrayed by the goofy expression she had as she looked at his daughter and gave a small smile.

"I know Captain but there's no one to baby-sit until Neelix has finish with the breakfasts and then the suppers for Gamma shift," he looked hopefully towards Chakotay with a cheeky smile.

"That's all very well Tom but what are you planning until then? To have her sit on the CONN while you drive perhaps?" Janeway shook her head in despair, "honestly, is there no one who can child mind for an hour?"

"I tried everyone, I thought she could just sleep in her backpack while I fly," he added,

Kathryn rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe she was even considering this, "Oh for God sake, give her to me," and before good sense could stop her she stood and took the backpack from her chief helmsman and giving him a reproachful look, "I suppose I'll have to watch her for a while," she addressed the baby, "won't I daring?"

Chakotay winked at Paris as he reached over and tickled Miral under her chin, "just fly in a straight line, Tom!" The baby cooed in delight at all the attention.

"Yes sir, I think I can manage that!" Paris saluted jokingly and gave his most charming smile to his Captain, "thank you,"

Kathryn shook her head and with a withered look continued discussing reports with her first officer while bouncing Miral on her knee lovingly. "It suits you," whispered Chakotay conspiratorially,

"Hush up!" she whispered back as they both giggled.

From his place at the CONN, Tom Paris grinned like a loon, they didn't know it but he had very good hearing.

"Captain I'm picking up a distress signal, trying to locate it… there, about 3 light-years starboard," said the OPS officer on duty, Ensign Weathers, a petite blonde with a mean right hook, if Tom remembered correctly, from his one time attempt to woo her back in the early days of their trip.

All joking forgotten, Kathryn Janeway quickly gave Chakotay the baby and stood ready for action, "on screen," she said with command.

They all watched as a broken image of a humanoid, possibly male alien, wearing simple clothes with soft features and bat-like ears began to speak, "My name is Captain Hic'tela of the Indrra people. My ship was damaged in a collision with some kind of space dwelling creature, our life support is failing, please help! There are only 6 of us left!" the image failed and Tom felt a pang of sympathy for the guy,

"It sounds like he met our friend the giant space squid!" said Paris remembering the creature that had damaged Voyager a few weeks ago thus inadvertently causing his child to be on the bridge.

He turned to glance at the Captain and his daughter as Janeway replied, "its certainly possible, B'Elanna's still fixing the problems it caused us and if Hic'tela ship is smaller it would have sustained massive damage," she turned to her second in command, "what do you think, Chakotay?"

"I think it's worth further investigation we can't stand by and let his crew die and he may have something worth trading,"

"My thoughts exactly, Tom, set a course. We've got some squid ink to remove!"

TBC…

AN: I know - but Janeway always has the cheesy bad lines and that was the best I could come up with! Lol


	3. Chapter 3

Three

Tom expertly glided Voyager through a mine field of debris, "looks like a huge battle was fought here," exclaimed Chakotay from Tom's left side,

"I'm glad I wasn't on the losing side!" replied Tom, glancing behind him to check Miral ensconded in Janeway's arms, sleeping lightly.

"Quite," Shifting his daughter, Janeway addressed OPS, "Ensign, are you picking up any life signs? Any sign of Hic'tela's ship?"

"Negative Captain but I am getting a strange reading, looks like some kind of dampening field but I can't get a location," She continued searching for answers, while Tuvoc, intrigued by something on his screen said,

"Captain, I think we should leave this area of space."

"Why?" Janeway was feeling ill at ease, this area seemed almost spooky and if she were a superstitious person she might even have called it eerie or ghostly. Tuvoc raised his eyebrow, about to answer when they all lurched to the right, Miral instantly awake and crying. Janeway who was stood holding her, fell rolled in a ball to protect the child, landing badly as she did so, "Argh!"

"Captain!!" Shouted Tom, who without thought for flying the ship, dashed from his chair to get his daughter from his injured Captain's arms. Chakotay thinking fast, sat and began manovering the ship out, but it was too late. They were trapped.

"Captain, shields are weakening, down to 29%" shouted Tuvoc across the chaos; sparks were flying out of consoles, people screaming in terror and pain. Tom stood, reached down and helped Janeway to her feet only to have her fall into him. With one hand he eased her into her chair and with meaning filled eye contact gave her Miral to hold.

"Don't worry Tom," She understood his request. Protect her with your life if you must.

"Chakotay! What is happening!" Tom reluctantly went back to his place while the Captain was updated,

"Shields are almost gone, the dampening field – or whatever it is – is totally draining us, at this rate we'll be out of power, and I mean all power in less than 5 hours!"

Nodding gravely Janeway pressed her comm., "B'Elanna what's going on down there!"

"We're trying Captain, but the warp coil is beginning to overheat if we can't cool it we'll have to eject, the field is draining power from the warp shielding! We've got 10mins after that we're stuck. No coil! B'Elanna out!"

"Guess she's busy," said Tom trying to smooth things over,

"No doubt she is. Options!" bellowed Janeway over the noise.

"We could try diverting power from the helm, with no warpcoil my jobs pretty redundant." He added hopefully,

"Do it." she snapped as she shifted the crying baby in her arms,

"You should let the Doctor look at your ankle, you might have broken it when you fell," said Chakotay. She threw him a look that said 'ask that again and you'll be in need of the Doctor'.

Tuvoc finished his latest scans, "Shields are down," he punctuated each work for effect.

"Captain! Look, they're powering up!" said Tom incredulously, as hundreds of lights came on within the debris.

"It's a trap!" Chakotay stood as if expecting alien life forms to appear before him. Surprisingly he wasn't wrong.


End file.
